EUROGRAPHICS General Assembly
The Eighteenth General Assembly of the EURO- GRAPHICS Association was held at Hotel Agro, Bu- dapest, Hungary on Saturday, August 6th, at 17.45.
The Chairman, W.T. Hewitt, welcomed the 51 mem- bers present.
elected members of the Executive Committee and so a degree of stability can be provided in this way.
There were no further matters arising.
3. Chairman's Report
The Chairman gave an annual report of the activities of the Association. He reminded members that EU- ROGRAPHICS is an Association of professionals to help professionals in their careers in computer graph- ics and interactive digital media. The target audience of the Association is professionals who are active in research and development in academe, industry and commerce.
1. Minutes of the Seventeenth General Assembly
Acceptance of the Minutes of the seventeenth Gen- eral Assembly, published in Computer Graphics Fo- rum, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 367-372 (1996), was proposed by the Chairman and seconded by Dr Bono. The min- utes were approved nem con.
2. Matters Arising
At the 1996 General Assembly, Dr Mumford asked for statistics on the election results showing the sucess rate for new candidates and the rate of introduction of new blood into the Executive committee.
3.1. Works hops
The Workshops Board supervises the workshops pro- gramme.
Seven workshops have been held in 1997, includ- ing the Hardware Workshop which this year was orga- nized jointly with Siggraph and was held during Sig- graph '97. Several hundred people have participated this very successful series of workshops. The Associa- tion's appreciation of the efforts of workshop organis- ers was recorded. Four workshops are currently at the planning stage for 1998, Design Specification and Ver- ification of Interactive Systems (3-5 June 1998, Abing- don, UK), Rendering Techniques (24-26 June 1998, Vi- enna, Austria), Parallel Graphics (France), Visualiza- tion in Scientific Computing (Germany) and Implicit Surfaces. It is expected that other workshops will be held during EUROGRAPHICS '98 in Lisbon.
3.2. Publications
Due to exceptional circumstances, there have been lengthy delays in the delivery of issues 1 and 2 of Computer Graphics Forum volume 16. Issue 1 was de- livered to members about l month ago, and issue 2 is now ready to be mailed. The Chairman said that a let- ter of apology had been sent to all members and that The Treasurer presented a foil tabulating the com-
position of the Executive Committee since 1989 and election candidates for each year. The main conclusion is that new blood is only introduced into the Execu- tive Committee through the retirement or resignation of an existing member. The Treasurer said that the Professional Board were concerned about this situa- tion and would be bringing forward some proposals to balance continuity against the need to encourage new people to join the Committee. He indicated that one approach being considered is to limit the number of terms of office a member might serve without taking a year out.
Professor Grimsdale commented that many associ- ations achieve stability through a permanent secre- tariat. He stressed the need for long term continuity in the Association as well as the need for new mem- bers. He felt a small core of long serving members is necessary to preserve stability. The Chairman and Professor Arnold pointed out, that not all the Offi- cers of the Association are necessarily drawn from the
© The Eurographics Association 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
steps were being taken to ensure that such problems do not recur in future.
3.5. Promotions Board
Werner Hansmann and David Arnold co-chair the Promotions Board. The Board organized the EURO- GRAPHICS stand at Siggraph '97 which was very successful and generated new interest in the activi- ties and membership benefits of the Association. The liaison between EUROGRAPHICS and Siggraph con- tinues to develop well.
A new contract for Computer Graphics Forum has been negotiated with Blackwells, as a result of which the journal will be available electronically as well as on paper with effect from the first issue of 1998. The number of issues of the journal per volume will reduce from 5 to 4, but the total page count will remain un- changed. All members will automatically receive the conference proceedings issue. Blackwells have taken a share in the ownership of the journal, which is a sign of their strong commitment to the journal and augurs financial package agreed with Blackwells will lead to significant savings for the Association.
Dr Sillion questioned an announcement for Graph- icon ‘98 which stated that the event was being or- ganized in close co-operation with EUROGRAPHICS and would be held in the UK. Professor Arnold said the organizers had been advised to talk to EURO- GRAPHICS. As far as he was aware, no approach has been made. He expressed regret at this new direction well for the future development of the journal. The
that this event had been proposed some time ago and
Four new titles will be published by Springer-Wien
in the EUROGRAPHICS book series during 1997, apparently being taken by the Graphicon conference.
Two are already available.
The EUROGRAPHICS publications catalogue is maintained at the EUROGRAPHICS World Wide Web site (http: //www.eg.org) and is the definitive source of information about all EUROGRAPHICS publications. A printed catalogue is no longer pro- duced, but a paper copy can be printed from the web site. The web site also holds ordering information.
3.6. New Fellows of the Association
The Chairman reported that Carl Machover had been elected to Fellowship of the Association during the year. A special presentation was made to him in con- junction with his 70th Birthday celebrations.
A meeting of the Fellows was held during Euro- graphics '97, at which Richard Guedj and Werner Pur- gathofer were elected to Fellowships. Richard Guedj has been instrumental in the development of computer graphics over the past 20 years; the Seillac I and II workshops which he organized in the 1970's have had for computer graphics world-wide.
3.3. Operations Board
The Operations Board has done sterling work in main- Membership has grown by 8% over the last year which is very encouraging. The Association now has around 600 members.
taining the day-to-day operation of the Association. a profound influence on the development of standards
3.7. The Future of the Association
The Chairman said that the Association has a very strong programme of events. The Executive Commit- tee have striven to reduce the cost of events and also the cost of membership of the Association. More at- tention is being paid to electronic publishing and elec- tronic delivery of membership services.
The EUROGRAPHICS web site has developed sig- nificantly during the year. Responsibility for the site now rests with Ivan Herman in the Operations Board.
The Chairman commented on the outstanding job done by Ivan. He reminded members to sign up to the electronic mailing lists which will be used increasingly to send out announcements and other information to members. The web site also gives access to mailing lists for communicating with the Officers, Executive Committee and Executive Board. There are also pri- vate document servers for the Executive Committee and Board.
There is a need for an increase in volunteer effort in the Association and the Chairman stressed that it is very important to promote the activities of the Associ- ation to new audiences. The Chairman stressed three ways in which members can support the Association in this critical phase:
Recruit new members. Membership application forms are on the web site; other promotional ma- terials are available from the secretary.
Encourage your colleagues to play an active role in the Association; please send offers of help to the Chairman: [email protected]
3.4. Professional Board
The main work of the Professional Board during the ments with other societies.
year has been concerned with renewal of liaison agree-
Keep a watch on the EUROGRAPHICS home page;
lists of jobs for which volunteers are sought will be posted there.
He also stressed the importance of joining the EU- ROGRAPHICS members email list; the Executive Committee want to increase the use of email as a com- munication channel with the membership. It is there- fore very important that all members with email ac- counts join this list. Members may register for the list through the web site. Use of the list is strongly con- trolled; only Executive Committee members may send email to the members list.
shown is the total amount received for 1997 subscrip- tions which includes 22,600 Sfr paid during 1995 and excludes 12,800 Sfr for 1997 membership renewal paid in 1996.
Table 2 shows the state of the repayment confer- ence accounts. This is money which the Association spends on behalf of conferences, and at the close of each event, is reimbursed in full to the Association.
Expenditure has occurred in more than one financial period. The column labelled Cumulative gives the to- tal income and expenditure under each heading. The column labelled 1996 gives expenditure and income between January and December 1996. Repayment of 4. Presentation of Accounts
The Treasurer, David Duce, presented the financial reports. The General Assembly was presented with audited accounts for the twelve month period 1 Jan- uary to 31 December 1996 and interim accounts from 1 January to 30 June 1997. A budget for the calendar year 1998 was presented later in the meeting. Writ- ten reports from the Treasurer and the Auditor were distributed to the members present.
4.1. Internal Accounts
Table 1 reports income and expenditure on the mem- bership account and compares this with the budget for the period, which was agreed by the General Assem- bly in August 1996. The actual membership income
Table 2: Repayment Accounts
the loan to EUROGRAPHICS '95 Was received during 1996.
4.2. Audited Accounts
The Auditor's Report is reproduced at the end of these minutes. The Profit and Loss Account for 1996 is shown in table 3 and the Balance Sheet in table 4.
In the audited accounts, the EG '96 account stands at 1,055 Sfr and the EG '97 account at 1,176.44 Sfr.
For information, table 5 summarises the capital and results reported in the audited accounts over recent years.
1. Bank interest has fallen significantly because of a fall in interest rates in Switzerland.
2. The conference surplus line is complex and is dif- ferent in the internal and audited accounts because of the different ways in which the results of the EG 95 event were reported in each. Income from EG'96 will appear in the 1997 accounts.
3. The Bookshop income line has also been compli- cated by the way the results of EG 95 were treated in the internal and audited accounts,
4. Almost all Boards underspent. The most signifi- cant being the Promotions Board (the underspend Table 1: Internal Accounts 1996
Table 5: Assets 1994 - 1996
Table 4: Balance Sheet as at December 31st, 1996 (with comparative figures for 1995)
4.3. Forecast for 1997
Table 6 reports income and expenditure on the mem- bership account for the period 1 January to 30 June 1997 and compares this with the budget for the 1997 financial year. This budget was approved by the Gen- eral Assembly in August 1996. A forecast of expen- diture to 31 December 1997 is given in the second column.
Table 3: Profit and Loss Account (January 1 to 31 December 1996) (with comparative figures for 1995)
On the conference repayment accounts, balances are currently EG’97 -16,104.67, including advance of 15,000 Sfr; EG ‘98, -17.50 Sfr. It is anticipated that EG ’98 will request an advance payment, but the size of this is not yet known to the treasurer. Repayment of the balance on the EG’97 account is due after the con- ference closes. The outstanding balance on the EG’96 repayment account was paid in March 1997.
Under the assumptions made, the prediction for the on the Professional Board arises because EG with-
drew from CEPIS and no travel costs have been in- currred by the Board). The Bookshop underspend is due at least in part to the fact that orders for EG publications from the Bookshop have fallen and hence there has been no necessity to print more stock.
5. Expenditure on the Executive Board and Future Planning Workshop, shown separately in the inter- nal accounts, have been combined in the audited accounts.
There were no questions on the accounts.
Professor Arnold proposed that the audited ac- counts be approved, seconded by Dr Bono. The motion was carried, nem con.
end of year situation is quite healthy.
5. Appointment of Auditors
Dr Krammer proposed that Antoine Richard SA be appointed auditors for the financial year commencing 1 January 1998. Professor Hopgood seconded. The mo- tion was carried nem con.
Table 6: Forecast Income and Expenditure 1997
6. Executive Committee Elections 6.1. Results of the 1997 Elections
The Chairman reported the results of the 1997 elec- tions. 177 ballot forms were returned; one form was declared void (the member voted for eight candidates).
There were regional vacancies in regions 6 and 7.
did not wish to stand for reelection. The Chairman recorded the Association’s thanks to him for his ser- vices to the Association as an Executive Committee member over many years.
The composition of the Executive Committee will Until 31 December 1998. Arnold (1), Coquillart (5), Hansmann (2), Hewitt (1), Mantyla (4), Mumford (1), Teixeira (6).
Until 31 December 1999. Bono (8), Encarnacao (2), Fellner (2) ten Hagen (3), Rossignac (8), Vandoni (5), Willis (1).
Until 31 December 2000. Bergeron (8), Brunet (6), Duce (1), Herman (3), Post (3), Purgathofer (7), Sil- lion (5).
The numbers in brackets after each name indicate the region to which the member belongs. There will be one regional vacancy in each of regions 4 and 6 in the 1998 elections. The composition of the electoral regions is:
1. United Kingdom, Ireland.
The Chairman congratulated those who had been 2. Germany.
elected and thanked those who were not elected for 3. Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein.
their support of the Association. Dr Kjelldahl retires 4. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, from the Executive Committee at the end of 1997 and
be:
Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland.
5. Italy, Switzerland, France, Monaco, Malta.
6. Spain, Portugal, Andorra.
7. Rest of Europe.
8. Rest of the World (non-European).
options for Computer Graphics Forum is equal. If the uptake is not evenly divided, the effect on the income is slight.
1. The conference and workshops surplus figure for 1998 is made on the assumption that EURO- GRAPHICS '97 will break even. For later years, an income of 16K Sfr per annual event is assumed.
It is probable that the income from workshops in 1998 will exceed the 10K Sfr assumed in this bud- get.
2. The education services budget of 2K Sfr is a carry over item from the 1997 budget; not all the expen- diture allocated to this activity in the 1997 budget will occur in 1997.
3. A contingency line for new activities is included in the 1998 budget.
There were no questions on the proposal.
Acceptance of the proposals for new membership fees for 1998 was proposed by Dr Herman and sec- onded by Dr Kansy. The proposal was carried nem
con.
6.2. Appointment of Nominating Committee The General Assembly appoints two members to a Nominating Committee whose function is to nomi- nate candidates for the Executive Committee elec- tions. The Executive Committee has appointed D.A.
Duce and F. Post.
X. Pueyo and A. Chalmers were elected to represent the General Assembly.
7. Budget and Forward Look
The Chairman described a proposal from the Exec- utive Committee to reduce the membership fees for 1998, brought about by the new Computer Graphics Forum contract and savings on general expenditure.
The proposal was to provide three membership op- tions in 1998 offering different forms of access to the
journal: Acceptance of the budget for 1998 as presented was
proposed by Professor Arnold and seconded by Dr Torres. The proposal was carried nem con.
The Treasurer explained that Institutional Member- ship fees will remain unchanged.
8. Executive Board 1998
The Chairman announced the composition of the Ex- ecutive Board for 1997.
For the electronic options, members will be given password protected access to the journal via the WWW. This includes access to the conference pro- ceedings. In addition, members will receive an archival CD-ROM at the end of the volume. For the paper op- tions, members will receive all issues of the journal, including the conference proceedings.
Dr Sillion asked if members would get the CD-ROM if they opt for the paper only option. The treasurer indicated that it was not planned to include the CD- ROM as part of the standard package for the pa- per only option, but it might be possible to purchase it separately from the bookshop. He also said that the options would be reviewed after one year to see whether members were happy with the benefits pro- vided by each.
With this background, the Treasurer presented the budget for 1998 and forward look until 2002, shown in table 7. Figures are K Sfr. He explained that the for- ward look beyond 1999 was provisional. It has been assumed that the membership profile and fee struc- ture is flat over the period of the forward look. It is also assumed that the uptake of the three membership
The Chairman explained that Professor Duce had indicated that he wished to give up the Treasurer role at the end of 1998. Dr W. Hansmann has accepted the position of Treasurer designate and will work with Professor Duce during 1998. The Executive Commit- tee are also seeking a person to act as minutes secre- tary and a second co-chair for the Promotions Board.
Table 7: Budget for 1998 and Forward Look
9. Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held during EUROGRAPH- ICS '98 in Lisbon, Portugal on Thursday 3rd Septem- ber 1998.
10. Any Other Business
There was no further business and the meeting closed at 18.35.
